Chapter 1 - Into the Unknown
The morning had started off like any other, I woke up, ate breakfast, showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed, drove to school in my car, a Ford Mustang convertible. During lunch time the weather took a turn for the worse. I thought of how Percy or Henry would have looked at that… Oh yeah, about my secret, I’m a Tankie or Brocomotive… depending on who you talk to, basically a Thomas The Tank Engine fan. I then realized one of my mates was trying to get my attention,
“Earth to Xander, you there?”
That's Mat, one of my good friends
“Y-Yeah, what's up?” I stuttered, looking up.
“You going to E-Sports later or not? I need to Know.” he repeated.
“Not Sure it depends on when I can get out of here,” I said gesturing to the storm, “and if this weather will blow over or not. I have that sword class today…”
“You're still doing that?” asked Steve, another friend of mine
“Yeah.”
“Damn,” Steve shook his head, "Doesn't make sense to me why you keep doing that."
Just then the bell rang ending our lunch
“Hey,” Mat yelled over, “Text me if you're going or not!!”
“Will do!” I yelled as we split up outside the cafeteria, little did I know I wouldn't be sending that text.
The rest of the day was… fuzzy after that. I can't remember much until after my classes. I wasn't able to go to ESports, so I jumped in my car with my katanas in the backseat, and battling the wind and rain drove along down the country road towards where I would usually have my lessons at the YMCA.
About 20 minutes after I left the school… The lightning started, it wasn't bad or anything, but there was sure a hell of a lot at it. I again thought about Henry hiding in the tunnel or Percy taking the plunge and his promise to Thomas… I wish I hadn’t now...my focus diverted from the road and in that second I almost ran off a curved bridge… as I swerved, trying to correct my mistake before I took a swim, I spun out. The car spun a couple times then the hairs on my body stood straight up and I felt a small shock run through me, kind of like static electricity. The car's tires stopped squealing on asphalt as I believed that I ran off the road to the sound of dirt or possibly gravel. The car slid to a stop. I noticed the rain, thunder, and lightning had all stopped, perhaps I was under a bridge... was I under the bridge?!
I opened my eyes my car wasn't on the road… I thought I may have gone off it a little and that was the dirt noises. I looked at my dash, all the lights were off and the keys were in the passenger seat, I grabbed them and tried to start the car… nothing. I tried again… nothing. I had some jumper cables and a hydrometer in the trunk, I grabbed them, popped the hood and checked the battery… it was flat. I knew that if i pushed it far enough I may be able to start it… so I emptied everything that i could from the car, and then started to push, then it started to go on its own and I realized I was on a short hill. Quickly I jumped back in the car and started it successfully and braked hard… I stopped. Flipping on the headlights I stopped no more than 5 inches from a tree. I reversed back up the hill, put everything back in and turned to where the road was… but there was no road… all there was was a dirt path. Thinking I turned down it by mistake in the panic, I drove down it slowly, after a hour I checked my phone for the time… it said 7PM I decided to call my Mom to let her Know I was lost… then I remembered I could have just used the GPS on it… then I noticed I had no bars… I decided to stop and wait for morning. I got into the back seat and dozed off.
Chapter 2 - The Locals
I woke to birds chirping and the sun out and about. I checked the time. About 6AM. I yawned and got out to stretch. When I turned to get in the front seat of the car, I noticed something. There appeared to have been an apple orchard entrance about 100 yards away. I got into my car and turned the key, I checked the fuel gauge, just under a full tank. I then remembered I had 3 Things of Gas in the trunk as well… after I ran out that one time in the middle of nowhere I decided not to risk it. Turning into the orchard I accidentally clipped and knocked over the sign, it fell with a loud change and I cringed. I quickly stopped and walked over to see if it was badly broken, it wasn't thankfully, and I picked it up to put it upright, I read it out loud.
“Sweet Apple Acres…” I realized something. “Wait a minute, Where am I? There isn't a apple orchard anywhere near where i live”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SIGN?!!”
Startled by the southern voice I whipped around and looked for the source only seeing a orange tiny horse or something in a hat I called out,
“UM SORRY JUST TRYING TO FIND DIRECTIONS TO A TOWN”
“You don't have to yell”
I had to do a double take, the source of the voice was the tiny horse… weird...
“D-did you just talk…”
“Yeah I just talked… something wrong with that?”
“But you're a horse”
“Pony”
“What”
“I'm a Pony, now what are you?”
“I’m a human, you know the guys who builds houses and stuff”
“Nope we do that.”
“So there are no people here”
“Yes only us Pony-folk”
“oh Cock… Than I’m really lost”
“What?”
“I was driving last night in the rain when I lost control in my car and I woke up on a dirt road”
“Right… well anyway,” She walked up to me “that doesn't answer my question. WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SIGN!!”
“I clipped it with my car”
“Right… well it doesn't look too badly damaged i guess i can forgive you…”
“Alright, um do you think you could give me directions on how to get to the town maybe i can find a map or something”
“I was heading there anyway i can show you its about a 45 minute walk”
“We can drive”
“Drive?”
I pointed to the Mustang.
“Hop in the passenger side”
She gave me a confused look. I pointed to the side opposite of the drivers
“You just get in.”
She walked over to it and tried but quickly found a problem
“My hoof cant open it”
I facepalmed for my own stupidity
“Right, sorry.” i opened the door for her and she was able to close it
“So how does this work? What do I do?”
“You? Just sit back, relax and um… put on your seat belt just in case.” She gave me another confused look.
“What in tarnation is a seat belt?”
“This,” I showed her mine
She looked and after a couple seconds of struggle was able to buckle up after I showed her. I put the mustang into reverse and backed out making sure not to clip the sign again. I then turned onto the road putting it into first as we drove along the road slowly turned into a hill going down. I decided to make small talk.
“So… um… what's uh… your name” Stupid question but essential.
“Applejack”
“Applejack… cool name,” I turned to her but something caught my eye on her flank. I believe “what's with the tattoo?”
“That's not a Tattoo, It's a cutie mark”
“Cutie mark” I gave her a confused look
“It's when a foal discovers their special talent and they get a mark resembling it, mines apples because I run an apple farm and I love it, what's yours?”
“Don't got one, we don't get those…”
“Oh, so what's your name?”
“Names Xander”
“Huh. Xander… that sounds familiar but I can't reme- HEY LOOK OUT!!!”
I looked up just in time to see the road turn sharply right at the bottom of the hill which had steepened to avoid a ravine. I went faster,
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
“We'll never stop in time so I have to oversteer to make it!”
“IF YOU KILL ME I'LL KILL YOU!”
The cliff edge neared, I took my foot off the gas, turned the wheel and floored it, the mustang’s rear slid out from behind us and I made slight adjustments as we went around the corner, I then was able to regain a straight line. I stopped the car to make sure I did not damage anything. I turned to Applejack and she was gasping for breath...
“You alright?”
“Yeah, Yeah, I'm fine just tell me something Xander”
“Yeah”
“How often do you do that?”
“Not often, that was my first one on dirt, I usually do that on a road course with asphalt... Like rocks but stronger”
“I swear I'm going to kill you, just get me to Ponyville”
“Ponyville?”
“The Town”
“Oh”
We drove in silence after that, I tried the radio to no avail only getting static so I switched it off. Roughly 10 minutes later we drove into the town, she was right no people just lots of ponies.. With wings and horns as well but I noticed that they all had one or the other or none at all. The town drew nearer, as we drove down the road.
Chapter 3 - The Battle of Ponyville
“Stop here”
“Wha-”
“STOP”
I slammed on the brakes and we ground to a halt in front of a building, dust being kicked up from the wheels locking flew everywhere. I opened the door to a coughing and when i slammed the door it yelped
“Sorry, did I startle you?”
“Yeah you did” the voice was more cracked than Applejack’s “not scared though."
I remembered Applejack and ran over to open the door for her
The last of the dust finally settled and I saw who I had startled, a rainbow mained and blue Pegasus, with a thundercloud and rainbow thunderbolt for a cutie mark. She took a double take when she saw me and another when she saw the car.
“Rainbow this is Xander, Xander Rainbow Dash.” said Applejack
“What kind of a name is Xander?” Rainbow Dash asked sounding offended
“I could ask the same about Rainbow Dash”
“I can tell your not from around here”
“No shit” I said rolling my eyes
The door to the building, which I now realize was a café of some sorts, burst open with a literal bang and with Rainbow hovering in front of it got the brunt of the blast and slammed into me knocking us both to the ground.
“PINKIE” Yelled applejack
Pinkie, I thought, who's that?
Rainbow Dash snapping out of her shock jumped off and hovered and she helped me up.
When I looked up I saw Applejack with a pink pony and both were trying desperately not to laugh.
"Oh come off it"
Applejack stopped laughing
"Pardon?"
"It means come on"
The pink pony was laughing so hard I wondered if her lungs would come out her mouth or something.
"I take it your Pinkie"
"How did you know?" She said it like it was her darkest secret.
"Lucky guess" I said slowly.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes along with Applejack.
"Well, I am Pinkie Pie. And your Xander I heard you guys from inside, wanna have something to eat!?"
We agreed and walked into her shop
"Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner!"
Applejack whispered to me if you don't know what any of these things are you can ask me"
I whispered back "We have cupcakes where I'm from"
But before I could pick out anything pinkie sat us down and gave us pink cupcakes… extremely pink cupcakes. I picked it up and studied it.
"You said you have cupcakes where your from" Applejack said
"We do but not like these" I replied
"Then how are these different" Rainbow asked with a little sarcasm
"Well for starters I've never seen a cupcake this pink"
"That's because I made them to resemble the Baker, ME!" Pinkie said basically jumping up and down…no she was literally jumping up and down.
"How does she-" I started
"Dont ask" both replied
"Oook"
After our breakfast we left Sugar Cube Corner and when I offered to drive and Rainbow wanted in on it. So we drove to a castle where it was made out of what I first thought was ice, then they explained that it was actually crystal. When we got out Rainbow was very interested in the car she asked what its top speed was.
"I think about 180 mph on a race track"
"I've broken the sound barrier" she retorted.
"You can't do it often Rainbow," Applejack called over as she went to open the door "now come on you 2, Twilight and the others are waiting for us"
"Who's Twilight, sounds like some movie I heard of"
"She's like the leader of us" said Rainbow
"Right…"
"Don't be nervous she's just the princess of friendship, nothing too big"
I raised an eyebrow. The doors opened again.
"COME ON" Yelled Applejack
We then went into the castle where after a while of walking we entered a room where there was a table, with a 3D map of somewhere, and a light purple… unicorn with wings, was sitting there waiting for us, and a purple lizard as well. I decided to say something intelligent.
"S'up"
You blithering idiot.
The purple one looked takin aback, but understood what it meant.
"Um, hello." She said, slowly.
She studied me
"Your definitely not from around here, I've never seen anything like you"
Uncomfortable I looked around, then nearly jumped out of my skin when I looked down and saw a pink manned and yellow colored Pegasus staring up at me
"OH I'm so sorry to have startled you" she spoke so softly i could barely hear her.
"No, no you're good."
"Oh that's just Fluttershy darling don't worry about her she's always quiet about this stuff" I didn't recognize that voice so I turned and saw a white and purple manned unicorn.
"Um, who are you?"
"My name is Rarity darling, and Applejack said your name was Xavier?"
"No its Xander"
"Oh terribly sorry"
The purple one cleared her throat. I looked up.
"Why are you here?"
"No idea, I was driving yesterday to my sword fighting lessons in a bad storm, spun out, woke up on the dirt road, drove for a while, then went to sleep. In the morning I woke up to find I was outside the apple orchard and then I knocked down the sign and met Applejack."
"I see…"
"Beg pardon, but do you know how to send me back?"
They all shook their heads.
"Normally we may have a way to help but were kind of in a situation…" Applejack said
"What kind of a situation?"
"Changelings" Rainbow said as if I should know that
"A what'll?"
"Changelings," Twilight explained, "they take the form of others to steal the love you have for them to feed"
I nodded my head slowly.
"Still have no idea what yo-" never got to finish that sentence because several ponies burst in, one that was grey with a black mane, another was a white unicorn with a blue multicolored mane, and shades, and a Pegasus that looked a bit… derpy.
"Octavia, Vinyl, Ditzy? What's wrong?" Rainbow asked
"They're here" answered the unicorn nearly out of breath.
"Get the elements, we may be able to fend them off…" ordered twilight
"What's going on?"
The new ponies finally noticed me, the grey one spoke,
"The changelings"
"I can help," I said, not fully understanding what was going on, "I can fight"
"No," they all said at once
"But-"
"We can't ask you to do th-"
"I'm volunteering"
But they were firm and as they left I sat down…
"I never get to help as well…"
"Huh?" I looked up, the dragon was talking to me "who are you?"
"Names spike, and I already know your name"
"Nice to meet you…"
He was about to respond but then the door burst open and… Rainbow ran in. Spike looked at her.
"What's going on?"
"We need his help" She replied pointing to me.
I jumped up imminently.
"I'm ready!"
"Wait," Spike said, almost worried, "why did you run in… you always fly in?"
Rainbow suddenly went pale. Then she got angry and turned into a black… pony like creature.
"DAMNIT, no matter, I'll kill you where you stand"
Instinctively I drew one of my swords that I kept on my back.
"You would nay DARE," I said with a slight Scottish accent for some reason, "I'm too powerful for you."
It lunged at us, I shoved Spike out of the way as its teeth sunk into my upper left arm. Cringing in pain, I shoved him off. He then tried to jump on me again, only to meet the flat of my blade, Firebender, it landed in a heap, stood up shaking its head from the hit, and looked at me. I had my sword at its throat.
"S-spare me… please."
I hesitated...I had never killed before. I then realized my mistake, he lunged for my legs, they then turned hot as a green fire shot in between then, the changeling ran off. I collapsed, pain running up and down my arm. Spike running up with a first aid kit, applying bandages to my arm and patting my legs, which had been on fire. Wasn't too badly burned, by some crazy miracle, thankfully.
"You alright?" Spike asked
"Yeah, yeah just got me arm"
"Looks pretty bad," he said, "let's hope that you can still fight."
I stood and sheathed my sword,
"Come on we have to see what's going on"
We ran or to put it more accurately I carried Spike on my shoulders as I ran to the balcony, we burst out to find 4 changelings there. They turned only to have the flat of my sword meeting their heads, in shock they fell off the railing, falling into the moat below.
"Look," Spike pointed to the town
"Dear God" the town was under attack. Several ponies were locked in combat or laying on the ground; some looked several injured. Without thinking I jumped into the moat with Spike. I pulled us out and looked for my car, right where I left it.
"Come on," I said grabbing spike I put him in the passenger seat and rolled down the window, "I drive you do that fire thing"
He nodded and I turned off the traction control and took off.
It was a war zone, whenever a changeling came near us we would fight it off while grabbing ponies and helping them into the back seat, we fought our way to the center of town where rolling up quietly we saw that they had captured everyone we reversed into the shadows to not be seen. "I'm going in"
"What are you mad?!" Spike looked worried
"I'll be ok" I opened the door and snuck towards the ponies in chains. I recognized all of them as the 6 from the tower, and the 3 that ran in but saw many I didn't know. One saw me, her eyes went wide, worried that she would say something or draw attention. I put my finger to my lips… she understood and looked away. I crept around pulling a cloth over my mouth to hide the sound of my breathing. There seemed to be a bigger changeling than the rest, she was addressing the others, I assumed they were her followers, I didn't pay much attention until she said,
"-WE SHALL SEND A MESSAGE TO CELESTIA BY KILLING HER MAIN LINE IF DEFENCE!"
I nearly dropped my sword at those words, acting quickly I swiftly climbed up one of the houses, keeping low as to not be seen. She was bringing out 6 of the captured ponies, I realized they were the 6 I knew, I knew there was little hope of survival for them… so without much thought I ran along the rooftops as quickly as I could seeing she was about to break the neck of the one called Fluttershy, I jumped off the roof and slammed into her knocking her away from her. I hit my head pretty hard on the wall of the fountain, my vision swam, my head hurt, I couldn't think. Then I saw her closing in, I rolled out of the way just in time, raising to my feet, my sword drawn.
"That was a mistake" she snarled as she turned to attack me, her voice had a hint of confusion at who/what I was.
I raised my sword. Ready to defend myself. The next few seconds were a blur, I just remember blocking and backing into a wall. When I finally got a chance to hit, I found that I only cut her hair… she didn't take that well.
"AAARGH" She yelled as she hit me over the head, my sword dropped out of my hand and I crumpled… I opened my eyes to see her fangs bearing down on my neck. I looked to see the ponies eyes wide… I noticed 3 foals crying. Then I saw Spike in the Mustang trying to figure out how to start it… then I reached into my pocket and pressed the remote start. The car took off almost instantly swerving to avoid the captured ponies but spinning out and the rear moving out to slam into the back of her. She flew and slammed into the crowd of changelings. I stood up and opened the door, Spike was gripping the wheel white as a feather while another pony had worked the pedals.
"Nice driving guys"
I grabbed my sword and ran towards the ponies and tried to cut the chain but to no avail. So I removed the gag on one of them. She went to thank me but her eyes went wide. I wiped around and just had time to block before her hooves came down on me.
"DIE ALRIGHTY"
I shoved her off of me and kicked her in the face.
"Fat chance" I replied
She was mad now but before she could strike,
"Celestia is on her way."
"Impossible," she said, "we blocked all dragon communications"
"I don't use that," I said pulling out my phone, which I noted had a long crack down the middle of it, "I used this to contact her and now your dead"
Her face remained angry but I could tell she was trying to tell if I was lying, I kept a straight face . She took off ordering a full retreat. Once they were out of sight I sat down and sighed in relief, pain ripped through me as the adrenaline wore off. I then remembered about the ponies in chains. I turned to examine the chain.
"I can't cut it with a sword… Spike, can you come blow some fire on this?" I called to the purple dragon.\
Spike jogged over while I shifted the chain so that we wouldn't burn anyone and blew fire until it was red hot then after a few hits it broke in half. The ponies then were able to remove their gags but some needed help.
"There are wounded in the back of the car," I said, "Hurry" we ran over and pulled them out. Some were bleeding badly, others were out cold. One's limb was badly broken. But no deaths. Thankfully.
About 4 or 5 hours later everyone was in a more stable condition, and the town was relatively intact indicating that the changelings meant to keep and hold the town. The royal guard, the army of Equestria, had arrived to provide medical aid, while I heard talk from the general that the Wonderbolts were making sure they returned to their hive in the south. It was getting dark. I had been driving the wounded back to their homes along with others who were too exhausted to walk. I had one more to take home, the grey one who was called Octavia and the white unicorn named Vinyl Scratch. As we drove I wandered the same questions I had been asked every time, how does this work? What does this do? And where did it come from? When we pulled up I let them out and helped them inside where they said their thanks I was about to leave in my car when. It coughed… sputtered then died.
Cursing, I looked at the dash and I saw I was out of fuel and the check engine light was on… but it was dark and I was unable to see anything… I got out cursing at my bad luck when a hoof was laid on my back, it was Octavia.
"You can stay with us for the night If you would like." She offered
I looked at my car, nodded and locked it, we walked in and she said I could use her bed if I'd like but I declined and went to the couch. I then fell instantly asleep.
